Merry Samhuinn!
Come All Who Hunger
by Sharon Knight
Come all who hunger
Come ye rogue and restless souls
Come to the feast and
Let your greatest deeds be told
Raise up your voice and
let your songs be free and bold
For this night we feast with the Mighty
Today I finished crafting some paper mache skulls for my group’s Samhuinn ritual tomorrow night, I also carved a bunch of pumpkins which are now sitting in the fridge – an old florist’s trick to keep them fresh for tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m going into the woods to harvest local underworld plants as decorative greenery for the ritual – mainly snowberry, alder, yew, and maybe elder if I can find some still with leaves. While grabbing a cheese grater at Ikea I walked passed the Chistmas decorations and was delighted to see the old Scandinavian straw ornaments/corn dollies and they just happened to have a big two and half foot black ram one tied up with red ribbon! He is perfection for representing the dark god who rules now that the greenmantle is dying. I’ll also be decorating the hall with me and sweetie’s skull collection for a touch of extra creepy witchiness. Now that the tricker treaters have been replaced by teenagers and firecrackers, I’m off to drink mulled apple mead and watch Witch Hunt with Dennis Hopper.
November 1, 2009 at 1:29 pm
i do like the goat, he is very pretty! i hope that you had a great night !!
*twirls around*
November 2, 2009 at 12:23 am
Hey the skull masks are beautiful…well done =) When you make a skull fetish, I presume it is as a physical housing for a chosen spirit…what kind of consecration (spirit house warming party) do you put together to offer it to the spirit? The fetish skulls I’m thinking of the those painted animal skulls I saw for sale in a photo of a products table you have on your site.
Blessings
Anthony
November 2, 2009 at 8:54 am
You list the Toad’s Bone Apotheca as one of your friends, but you don’t seem to be aware of Robin Artisson, Papa Toad Bone’s friend and widespread online and offline writer on Traditional Witchcraft, and all the other things you write about here. Papa Toad Bone is a highly ranked member of Robin’s witch-group, the Heth Coven. I just found it surprising that you don’t link to him at all, considering he’s at the top of most searches and a published author of some not bad books.
November 2, 2009 at 9:26 am
Thanks Anthony! I think you described it perfectly as a spirit house warming party. It will only be a temporary home for when the spirit is visiting, so it’s like a second house in Florida housewarming… Consecration is the key, make pure, sanctify – bless the vessel. Then draw the spirit into it by invoking them and telling them about the vessel and how it works (in case the spirit hasn’t hung out with a magician before) and then off you go. To first draw the spirit into the vessel you could sprinkle some althea (marshmallow root), copal, or even add a quartz crystal to ground them. The ritual can be as complex or as simple as you make it.
Hiya Ron, I am well aware of him and my good friend Papa Toad Bone is still trying to warm me up to the fellow, however, I’ve been around a while on the same lists and circles and have my own opinions hence the non linking.
Slainte,
Sarah
November 2, 2009 at 11:34 am
S’okay, Sarah. I wasn’t trying to get involved in stuff that I don’t know anything about, I just like his writing and don’t think he’s a bad guy. I think he comes off as an ass at times, sometimes on purpose. But Toad Bone’s a good guy (have you seen the Mississippi Conjure site he does?) and you have to judge people by more than just online behavior. I like to look at the people they hang around, too. Cool blog of yours.
November 2, 2009 at 12:10 pm
No worries Ron, to each their own right? I’m a member of the Mississippi Conjure site (I was voluntold). It’s building up a good conjure and traditional witchcraft community there. I don’t think RA’s a bad fellow I just prefer to go to the source instead of an amalgamation, ’tis all.
Slainte and happy Samhuinn!
Sarah
November 2, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Any book, website, body of lore, ritual, tradition, or teacher is an amalgamation. We need amalgamations to point the way to the source. At least RA’s amalgamation doesn’t include the words “blessed be” or “an it harm none”. That particular amalgamation is tired and worn out.
Badass Samhain pictures, btw. Very badass.
November 2, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Hi Sarah,
Unrelated to the above post, I have been fortunate enough to stumble upon some beautiful fly agaric toad stools (red with crumbly white dots/warts/clumps). can you recomend a particular method of preperation? If you do not wish to post a reply of this nature and via this means, I quite respect this.
Thanks,
Anthony
November 2, 2009 at 5:21 pm
The best way to prepare them is to oven dry them – slice the mushrooms up thinly and place them on a baking sheet. Set your oven at the lowest temperature and let them dry for 2-5 hours until all the moisture is gone from them. This gets rid of the more dangerous toxin that can cause paralysis and vomiting and changes the existing toxins into the hallucinogen you desire. After they are dried they will store in a sealed container or sandwich bag for a year or two. When you wish to take them you can make a tea with the dried mushrooms (use hot water, but not water that’s just been boiled) or grind them up and eat them or add them to chocolate or another food to make them more palatable. They can also be cut up fresh and added to dishes as the cooking process kills most of the toxins and therefore the hallucinogenic properties.
As far as entheogens in witchcraft go, fly agaric is one of the safer ones when compared the solanacae family. It takes about 15-20 mushrooms to cause symptoms that might lead to fatality. A beginner dose is about one to one and half mushrooms (3-4 inches in diametre). You may experience some nausea and vomit briefly within the first half hour. A larger dose may cause temporary paralysis, but it doesn’t leave any lingering side effects and it doesn’t last for the duration of the experience – it can even be beneficial to the out of body experience. Before you take them keep in mind the effects last from 12-24 hours.
Happy flying,
Sarah
November 6, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Well I burnt the first lot of mushrooms in an oven Im not familiar with, but a second more abundant harvest is drying at a low temperature as we speak. Thanks for the information. Do you now roughly how long the chemicals stay in the body for? I ask so as to allow sufficient periods of time between taking them (presuming I wish to repeat the experience) so as not to build up toxic levels by repeated dosing in quick succession (not that I intend to make it a monthly event).
Thanks again for your time and help, your blogg continues to be a source of inspiration and great interrest,
Anthony
November 6, 2009 at 10:18 pm
It would probably be completely out of your system in 24-48 hours.
Slainte,
Sarah
November 23, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Thought I would just say hello. Its not everyday that one happens upon a conversation going on about them haha.
Ron, are you on cunning+conjure?
November 24, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Hehehe, just like the old saying “speak of the devil… and he’ll appear”!